If there was ever a question about whether or not Twitter's social networking service has the power to act as a conduit for real-world results, this is it. Just a few days ago, on August 25th to be exact, two individuals in Mexico, a mister Gilberto Martinez Vera and a miss Maria de Jesus Bravo Pagola, Tweeted what turned out to be false information on their Twitter accounts about both shootouts and kidnappings near schools in Veracruz. What resulted was 26 total car accidents, people running through the streets, and emergency numbers "totally collapsed" under traffic in the area from concerned callers.
Illustration by Pascal Doury
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‘social media’ Stories
Google shuts down Slide to focus on Google+
Google is shutting down its Slide team, which has been running as an independent unit since it was bought over a year ago for $200 million. Slide was a social apps startup with its acquisition part of Google's plans to get more social. But, that was before the success of Google+.
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Social Media block for potential criminals threatens UK government
Social networks have been blamed for the rioting seen in London and across various UK cities, with the UK Prime Minister David Cameron suggesting that the government is exploring the possibility of blocking access to such methods of communication if users are believed to be plotting criminal behavior. Speaking at a hastily convened parliamentary sitting, a full transcript of which is already online, Cameron conflated encrypted instant messaging tools like BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) and social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook in what quickly became a push to clamp down on their potential for misuse.
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Zuckerberg And 62 Facebook Employees On Google+
The Google+ social network launched just over two weeks ago and is still in a beta invite-only period with a public opening rumored for early August. But in this short amount of time, the network has already amassed more than 10 million users, one of those being Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has ironically become the most followed person on Google+.
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Google+ Corporate Accounts Testing To Launch Next Week
When the new Google+ social platform was announced for beta testing over two weeks ago, it attracted plenty of interest from personal account users as well as businesses. However, the latter was denied access, told to hold off until Google was ready to roll out corporate accounts. Now it looks like select businesses will get the privilege to trial Google+ corporate accounts starting as early as next week.
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Facebook Deactivates Open-Xchange, Blocks Personal Data Migration
Although the recently announced Google+ social platform is still in private beta, it has generated enough excitement to have Facebook making some preemptive measures. Shortly after the announcement, Facebook made a peculiar change to their TOS that resulted in the ban of popular Chrome extension Facebook Friend Exporter. Over the weekend, another personal data migration tool, Open-Xchange, has also been deactivated.
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Facebook To Thwart Google+ Excitement With An “Awesome” Launch Next Week?
Google+ was just launched and has stirred a lot of buzz that will hopefully last longer than Google Buzz. This is the search giant's second major attempt at creating a social platform to rival that of Facebook and folks are vying for invitations to join. Could all this excitement have caused some concern for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg?
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Justin Timberlake To Bring MySpace Back?
The death of MySpace seemed near as News Corp. was rumored to either offload the platform or shut it down completely before this Thursday---its fiscal year end---to get the money losing property off its books. Thankfully, today a deal was reached to sell the property to Specific Media for $35 million, a disappointing number compared to the $100 million target and the original $600 million purchase price back in 2005. But, nonetheless, there is new hope today for MySpace, as it transitions to new hands and adds a celebrity stakeholder.
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MySpace Sold For $35 Million To Specific Media
It's official. According to an exclusive through AllThingsDigital, the once popular but now ailing social network, MySpace, has been sold. Yesterday, news came that News Corp. was looking to close a deal before the end of this week with low bids coming in between $20 to $30 million. It seems they managed to up the final sale price to $35 million with Specific Media being the "lucky" winner.
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What Google+, Circles, Sparks, and Huddle will Mean for Me and You
Dear Google, you’ve been ever so kind in allowing me to keep all of my stuff in one place with Gmail. I had a tough time trusting you back when Gmail became a reality and I was so used to using my PC computer and the horrifyingly ancient desktop-based email client therein. But I learned, I learned quite well, and now I know that you are the true holders of all the keys. Today you’ve announced a program called Google+, this encapsulating several elements including Circles and Huddle as well. It’s a social networking web of ideas and elements that’s set to change the way we work with Google and with each other – will you ensnare me again?
SlashGear 101: What is Google+, Circles, Huddle?
Despite various failed attempts in the past, Google is taking another stab at creating a social platform to rival Facebook. Their latest creation is called Google+ and it hopes to bring the “nuance and richness” of real-life sharing and connections to our online world. Unlike Facebook, where all your connections are simply deemed as “friends” and the tools provided for making connections and sharing are very rigid, Google+ will allow for greater flexibility and customization.
MySpace Heads To The Bargain Bin, Low $20-30M Bids
Ever since Facebook began picking up steam, MySpace steadily shrunk in popularity. Almost 50 percent of the MySpace staff have recently been laid off and now the site is up for sale. News Corp purchased MySpace back in 2005 for a whopping $600 million, but the latest bids for the site are coming in between only $20 to $30 million.
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